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Taking extended family holidays

A big extended family holiday is a fantastic chance to spend some quality time together. Does the thought bring a smile to your heart or does it terrifies you? If you can't even agree on what television show to watch, how are you going to survive a week together?

A family outing to a animal sanctuary bridges all ages

A family jaunt to the seaside with everyone from Grandpa Joe down to little baby Annie seemed to belong to a quaint bygone era. Yet it is making a comeback today, if it ever went away in the first place. It is a great way to bond with the family and especially in today's era where families are living further away, it is a great chance to reconnect with extended family members all at once!

Riding high

Keep it simple

Extended family Holidays with Kids and the grand parents including aunts and uncles is a wonderful way to celebrate all that is great about families. Actually it is not hard to find to find a holiday that suits all of you. The golden rule is to keep it simple (KISS).

Even a trip to the shops can be fun

Ideal Accommodation

Look for a good central base. First set a budget. You can pick a free camping spot where everyone just bring their own tents or caravans. If you have a little bit more money, you can find many caravan parks where are more accommodation choices, and facilities as well as activities to do.

Freshwater Resort, the scene of our most recent family holiday

It would be ideal to have a bedroom for each age group. A communal area, such as a tent, lounge room or kitchen is great where all can come together to share meals and/or activity events. Even a communal camp kitchen can work wonders here!

If you can manage it at all, find a place with water, whether it be a creek, a beach or a pool. Even people who don't swim, will most often enjoy watching others go swimming or wading at the edge of the water.

Maybe a camping trip is your ideal

Activities

Don't try to jam pack a holiday where you plan something for everyone,
where grandparents have to wait for hours whilst the older grandkids
queue up for exciting rides at a theme park or where little kids walk
for hours looking at museums and artwork! If you try for this sort of
holiday then most likely no one is going to enjoy their holiday least of
you if you are the organizer!

It is perfectly fine to have the various groups break away and 'do their own thing'! Some people might want a full on active holiday, whereas some might just love the opportunity to bury their nose in a book. The main thing is a place to gather at the end of each day for a meal whether it be home cooked, dine out or delivered. The eating and sharing of the day's activities is a big part of being together.

Don't forget to let the young at heart have some fun too!

Maybe a cruise ship might tick most of your boxes, this solves most of the transport, accommodation and activities problems in one deal.

Real life example

In my own family, we have a son, daughter in law and his 2 little toddlers who live in the Northern Territory, well over 3,000 km or nearly 2,000 miles, one daughter lives in north Sydney, the other is in Vancouver, Canada for a year and the youngest son is still at home, but how long for?
Due to the distance and everyone's schedule, what we do is we arrange and pay for the resort like accommodation at a chosen destination and everyone makes and pays their way to the destination. We mostly tend to self cater though we do go out for dinner occasionally.
So far we've had holidays in Christchurch New Zealand, a ski trip to Mt Buller Victoria, the Gold Coast, Palm Beach, Queensland.

Taking a swimming break whilst camping at Fruit Bat Falls, Qld

As the extended family becomes bigger, this may change to accommodate everyone's needs and finances. I love the idea of a houseboat. We are considering a trip to Bali for the next holiday, before it gets too expensive as a group. I can see camping trips being the norm in the future!

Do you holiday with the family? I would love to read about your travels, jot me a note in the comment box below. If you have any questions, I will be only too glad to answer them!

3 comments:

Hi Michelle, what sort of bus was it before conversion? What state did you register it in? We are up to the door business. We are converting the bifold into a rigid but we need a two stage clasp so we can't use a standard door fitting.Keep up the good work

Hi Boof, Our bus was a 21 foot Fuso. Rob ended up making his own door to fit. Here is a brief history with links to some of the more detailed posts. http://robbiebago.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/a-pictorial-history-of-bus-conversion.html

Oops. The post finger button jumped up to my finger. LOL. Good luck with your conversion. Rob would answer any questions you may have. email me at robbiebago@gmail.com if you want to ask questions or desire his phone number. (just mention this post to remind us) I will most likely delete this portion of the post when I feel you may have read it (for security)

The Robbiebago

Our rig

G'day

This blog follows our Australian travels in an RV, the bus conversion, some recipes and other bits 'n pieces about our lives. I'd love to hear from you, so do feel free to make some comments and where possible I will return the compliment and visit your blog too!We have 4 grown kids and 2 delightful granddaughters. PS Robbiebago is named after Rob, who built our RV and we thought it'd be a fun name.

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